Rios, Maidana drop Ariza

ABS-CBN News

Brandon Rios and Marcos Maidana will no longer be working with conditioning mentor Alex Ariza after both boxers lost their assignments while training under the controversial strength coach.

Head coach Robert Garcia said in an interview with ES News that they have decided to part ways with Ariza, who was a former conditioning coach of many Pacquiao.

"This time we are not going to work with Alex Ariza. We decided that Alex Ariza is not going to work with Brandon or Mikey or Maidana - none of my fighters,” said Garcia.

He said they already had the best boxing team even before Ariza came into the picture. But when they didn’t see positive results from Rios’ fight with Pacquiao and Maidana’s bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Garcia said they have decided to let Ariza go.

“He's a great at what he does. When I brought Alex here, the first thing I said is that we have the best team in the world, that nobody could beat us - because we did have the best team in the world,” said Garcia.

The boxing coach also hinted that there was friction between the team and Ariza, prompting Garcia to send off the strength coach.

“Little differences that happened. There is no need to go over [them]. But, yeah, he is no longer going to be in my camp with none of my fighters," he said.

Ariza teamed up with Rios and Maidana last year after having a falling out with Team Pacquiao.

He also figured in a camp fight with coach Freddie Roach while they were preparing for the Pacquiao-Rios clash.